Fabrication and evaluation of advanced titanium and composite structural panels

Advanced manufacturing methods for titanium and composite material structures are being developed and evaluated. The focus for the manufacturing effort is the fabrication of full-scale structural panels which replace an existing shear panel on the upper wing surface of the NASA YF-12 aircraft. The program involves design, fabrication, ground testing, and Mach 3 flight service of full-scale structural panels and laboratory testing of representative structural element specimens

Development of a cobalt-tungsten ferromagnetic, high-temperature, structural alloy

Cobalt-tungsten ferromagnetic, high temperature structural alloy for rotor applications in space power generator

A low-loss photonic silica nanofiber for higher-order modes

Optical nanofibers confine light to subwavelength scales, and are of interest for the design, integration, and interconnection of nanophotonic devices. Here we demonstrate high transmission (> 97%) of the first family of excited modes through a 350 nm radius fiber, by appropriate choice of the fiber and precise control of the taper geometry. We can design the nanofibers so that these modes propagate with most of their energy outside the waist region. We also present an optical setup for selectively launching these modes with less than 1% fundamental mode contamination. Our experimental results are in good agreement with simulations of the propagation. Multimode optical nanofibers expand the photonic toolbox, and may aid in the realization of a fully integrated nanoscale device for communication science, laser science or other sensing applications.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, movies available onlin

Dispersive Photon Blockade in a Superconducting Circuit

Mediated photon-photon interactions are realized in a superconducting coplanar waveguide cavity coupled to a superconducting charge qubit. These non-resonant interactions blockade the transmission of photons through the cavity. This so-called dispersive photon blockade is characterized by measuring the total transmitted power while varying the energy spectrum of the photons incident on the cavity. A staircase with four distinct steps is observed and can be understood in an analogy with electron transport and the Coulomb blockade in quantum dots. This work differs from previous efforts in that the cavity-qubit excitations retain a photonic nature rather than a hybridization of qubit and photon and provides the needed tolerance to disorder for future condensed matter experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Limitations of Radar Coordinates

The construction of a radar coordinate system about the world line of an observer is discussed. Radar coordinates for a hyperbolic observer as well as a uniformly rotating observer are described in detail. The utility of the notion of radar distance and the admissibility of radar coordinates are investigated. Our results provide a critical assessment of the physical significance of radar coordinates.Comment: 12 pages, revtex and pictex macros, 3 pictex figures, 1 eps figure. Expanded versio

Longitudinal Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG Seropositivity to Detect COVID-19.

BackgroundSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a novel beta-coronavirus that has recently emerged as the cause of the 2019 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based tests are optimal and recommended for the diagnosis of an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Serology tests for viral antibodies provide an important tool to diagnose previous exposure to the virus. Here we evaluate the analytical performance parameters of the Diazyme SARS-CoV-2 IgM/IgG serology assays and describe the kinetics of IgM and IgG seroconversion observed in patients with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 who were admitted to our hospital.MethodsWe validated the performance of the Diazyme assay in 235 presumed SARS-CoV-2 negative subjects to determine specificity. Subsequently, we evaluated the SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG seroconversion of 54 PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients and determined sensitivity of the assay at three different timeframes.ResultSensitivity and specificity for detecting seropositivity at ≥15 days following a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR result, was 100.0% and 98.7% when assaying for the panel of IgM and IgG. The median time to seropositivity observed for a reactive IgM and IgG result from the date of a positive PCR was 5 days (IQR: 2.75-9 days) and 4 days (IQR: 2.75-6.75 days), respectively.ConclusionsOur data demonstrate that the Diazyme IgM/IgG assays are suited for the purpose of detecting SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM in patients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infections. For the first time, we report longitudinal data showing the evolution of seroconversion for both IgG and IgM in a cohort of acutely ill patients in the United States. We also demonstrate a low false positive rate in patients who were presumed to be disease free